mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

hockey

Full disclaimer: the source (a magazine geared towards youth hockey) isn't catering to hardcore college hockey fans. Still, it's a quick read with some interesting numbers and a couple quotes, including Yale HC Keith Allain's take on winning without being able to recruit at a top level that won't be in this OP.

This was pretty surprising to me:

In the past seven years, there have been 28 spots up for grabs in the Frozen Four and 20 different programs have filled them.

College Hockey, Inc's executive director Mike Snee weighed in on parity from a 20,000 foot level:

The number of young people in the U.S. that play hockey has more than doubled in the past 25 years, while the number of schools offering D-I Men’s hockey has grown only slightly in that time, so the player pool is being spread out over more programs.

A lot of these numbers illustrate Michigan's recent troubles, although other blue bloods are doing just fine. A growing American hockey population makes the sport less Michigan-centric, but hopefully M can mitigate that with the USNTDP playing school in Ann Arbor and playing hockey in Plymouth.

Nicklas Lidstrom, who won seven Norris Trophies and four Stanley Cups as a cornerstone of the Red Wings, is a virtual lock in his first year of eligibility.

The Red Wings' blue liner was a Calder Trophy-finalist in his rookie season, and went on to score 264 goals and added 878 assists for 1,142 points in his career.

Only five defensemen recorded more: Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis, Phil Housley and Larry Murphy. All but Housley are already in the Hall, and the American blue-line leader should receive strong consideration again.

Other candidates with a good chance include Lidstrom's ex-teammate Sergei Fedorov and nemesis Chris Pronger.

In addition to the two first round selections in Zach Werenski (#8 overall to Columbus) and incoming freshman Kyle Connor (#17 overall to Winnipeg), 3 more incoming freshmen have been drafted in this 2015 NHL Draft.

Brendan Warren was drafted in the 3rd round, #81 overall by the Arizona Coyotes. The first Michigan player to be drafted by the Coyotes since the name change.

Joe Cecconi was drafted in the 5th round, #133 overall by the Dallas Stars. The first Wolverine drafted by the Stars since Marty Turco in 1994 and the 3rd ever with Jason Botterill being the other back in 1994 in the first round.

edit: I missed Guptill on the list. Guptill was the most recent Wolverine drafted by the Stars, making Cecconi the 4th to be taken by Dallas.

Cooper Marody was drafted in the 6th round, #158 overall by the Philadelphia Flyers. The first Michigan player drafted by the Flyers since Ryan Sittler back in 1992 when he went #7 overall. Marody is the 6th-ever Wolverine to be drafted by the Flyers.

Nick Boka was drafted in the 6th round, #171 overall by the Minnesota Wild. The second-ever Wolverine drafted by the Wild. Boka's teammate Nolan De Jong was drafted by the Wild just two years ago to become the first Wolverine to go to the Wild.